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Wednesday, 23 March 2016

The Light at the End by Joy Corcoran #ChaBooCha

The Light at the End

by Joy Corcoran

I love deadlines. I
like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.—Douglas Adams

I love writing intensives like the Chapter Book
Challenge. They forces me to make
writing a priority, but I’ve learned over the years, that such intensity courts
disaster. A deadline puts the universe
on edge. Appliances and vehicles develop
strange tics; the flu makes rips through the family; the toilet stops up;
friends need support; pets break out in bizarre rashes. It may be that all these things happen even
when I don’t have a deadline, but it feels like they all conspire to make it
impossible to stick to a writing schedule.

And yet, even with all the interruptions, the challenge
keeps writing on the front burner and makes me get back to it as soon as
disaster subsides.

Putting together a novel or chapter book is such a difficult
thing. Inevitably, I don’t make the
deadlines I set for myself. I wonder
sometimes if I could keep one if a publisher was waiting for my draft. But I know many published writers who can’t
make the muse work any faster than it wishes. And most editors seem to understand that a deadline is malleable thing.

Anne Lamott said that trying to write a novel is like trying
to tuck an octopus into bed. I sometimes
think that writing something like a short story, a picture book, or a chapter
book might be easier. In reality, though,
it may be a smaller octopus, but it has the same number of tentacles.

Even if I do make the deadline, and at the end of the month
have a great polished draft, there’s no guarantee that anyone in the publishing
world is going to read it. I may be revising
and resending for years, and still not get published.

What, then, is the point?

For me, in spite of repeated “failures,” and long periods of
not even trying to get published, the work of writing, the process itself, is
the point. It’s the real payoff. Writing helps me organize my own stories and
create a personal mythology. As I
struggle to describe what is happening in a story, I’m rewarded with language
for and insight into what’s happening in my life.

Not everyone wants to hear what’s happening in my life. Stories of all kinds are competing for
everyone’s attention – books, movies, videos, games – and let’s not forget real
life.

But paper always wants to hear what I have to say. It’s always urging me to say things more
clearly, to create a more accurate, better plotted way of telling my heart’s
truths.

And when I do finally create a real story, with a beginning,
middle and just the exact right ending – there’s no better feeling. What a delight to know that I’ve taken all
those loose threads and woven them into a blanket that covers the octopus
perfectly.

Most of my stories aren’t published. Most of them never will be. Many of them are still in my journals,
scribbled out in cursive with a ball point pen.

My novel has been worked on, worked over, and reworked many
times. I have yet to decide if it’s for
young adults or for all adults. I often
feel frustrated by it and by the compulsion to keep going back to it.

The poet W. S. Merwin once said that if you’re not sure
you’re a writer, try to quit. I
tried. Why set myself up for
failure? Why work for months on a story
that’s not going to earn me any money?

But I couldn’t quit. I wrote journal after journal, but I kept all my stories close to my
heart and didn’t share them. It was both
fear and confusion. A lot was going on
in my life. I had health problems, money
problems, and relationship problems. But
in the midst of all that, because I couldn’t quit writing, because I kept up
that compulsion, I discovered the real treasure of writing stories.

Life is complicated and much of what we feel is murky. We stumble around in a kind of darkness with
too much information and not enough understanding. A good story puts things in perspective and
creates a map of where I’ve been, and where I might go. When we create our own stories, we ravel up
the frayed edges of our lives. Even if
you’re writing pure fantasy, some bit of yourself becomes clearer, more
defined.

I ultimately write to understand myself, to have the words,
images, and metaphors of my life sketched out. I write to find my own light.

What about you? Why
do you write?

*****

Joy Corcoran is a writer and artist who divides her time
between Memphis, Tennessee, and Portland, Oregon. She’s had stories published in the Oxford
American, River City Writers, New American Fiction and other literary and small
presses. She wrote the 12 Lessons for
Greatness, stories and essay for children and their parents on values. Her art work has been shown in Memphis and
Portland. She’s illustrated a music
video. She serves as an art and story
mentor at Bridge Meadows, an intergeneration community that serves families
adopting children from the foster care system. You can find her book reviews and essays on joycorcoran.com.

What an inspirational post Joy. You really touched my writing heart. I am just starting on the writer's road. Some days, sometimes for many days I am consumed with writing, both on paper and in my head. Other days not so much but I just keep at it because I need to. Thank you.

i write because when the character comes to tell the story.. they dont shut up til i write it out.. thank goodeness they nick off after first draft normally.... but the ones that make me keep working at it.. they are the ones that shine

I write because I have to! Like Kelly, the characters don't shut up and keep bugging me until the story is written. I love ChaBooCha for the deadline, though life often gets in the way. This month has been crazy!

I agree with Melissa and Kelly also! It's like a twilight zone episode where the character haunts the man until he writes about him! I'm going to try and tackle that octopus and keep her undercover! thank you for sharing this wonderful post!

Chapter Book Challenge

This is a challenge to write one chapter book in one month. The first one will be running in March 2012, and you can join in by the 1st of the month. There will be progressupdates, inspirational posts, and guest posts by published chapter book authorsand agents. There will even be some terrific prizes!

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